I want you to know that I hesitated to write this blog, Dear Reader. I want you to know that I have been struggling with it all afternoon and have been turning it around and around in circles in my head because I was afraid of what you might think. Afraid you might think I’m writing this for the fame, for the drama, because I’m paranoid, because I think I’m the ultimate witch. But no. I wouldn’t have written this at all if I hadn’t been called the fuck out by a deck of cards I used to ask Na Morrigna for clarification. “What should I do?” I asked. Do I really need to tell others about the working I’ve done? Do I need to share my UPG? It’s very, very, deeply, woo. I had hoped the answer would be No, that They would tell me I’d done enough in bringing the situation to the attention of a few key groups and networks. But, alas. “You agreed to be our Priestess.” They said. “You agreed to help organize the Warriors.” They said. “So DO YOUR FUCKING JOB.” I didn’t argue. I wrote the blog. Here it is.
Today, I got a news alert from NPR. That is not unusual. The news alert said that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg had missed a day of arguments. That is unusual. Very unusual. It has never happened before in her entire career. I immediately had a Bad Feeling, and while I initially thought it was a bad feeling of the usual sort, it remained seared into my brain until I had a quiet moment to check in with my gods and guides and as soon as I was paying attention, they roared DO SOMETHING. This was not a normal feeling, this was not a normal occurrence – something beyond the mundane had happened. So, as is my usual inclination, I first sought more information. I did not have much time just then, so my first dive into trance was shallow, only enough to touch base a little deeper with my allies. The message they had for me was fairly clear, though: banework had been thrown, likely by a group as a concerted effort, and not only at RBG, but also at Sotomayor and several members of Congress, particularly concentrating on a few newly-elected progressive women of color. Na Morrigna were also waiting for me, and their message was brief: Activate your Networks.
So, I began to spread the message. I posted the news article and suggestions or requests for curse-breaking, healing, and protective magical workings, in several different places. Practice and study groups on facebook, on my witchy tumblrs, even a few private messages. I kept it close to home, so to speak, within circles where people already know me, and are already more or less familiar with who I am and the work I do. Some people responded back, and one in particular launched immediately into their own investigation and working, and then discussed with me at length the messages they were receiving – many of which confirmed my own.
My own working had to wait until I had enough time to focus, which did not occur until my toddler went down for a nap. (Ah yes, the joys of stay-at-home parenthood.) I began with almost a dozen candles to various deities and spirits, including DC land spirits, the Potomac River, my ancestors, and the ancestors of those targeted, with pleas for help and aid. I’m a devotional polytheist, and that’s where I usually begin. Bast and Sekhmet as Eyes of Ra. Be Chuille and Dinand, the sorceresses of the Tuatha De Danann. The three Morrigna. Apollo. Athena Columbia, Elutheria, Dike, Nike. I pledged, I pleaded, I offered, I cried.
And then I made myself comfortable on my couch, I set up my meditation music, and crossed into the Otherworlds. I began, as I usually do, in the Waystation, my home in the Otherworlds. There is a shrine in that space, a sanctuary in the middle of a sanctuary, where the being I call The StarFlower Queen, the Fairy Queen to whom I am bound, does workings Over There. She joined her powers to what I had begun, and replicated the candles I lit to increase the strength of their call. She also created protection spell candles for those most severely affected by the baneworking, and stuck them in her eternal flame, to keep them ever-burning until such a time as they are no longer necessary.
Then, we spoke to her mother, Be Chuille, and asked what she could do. As we have done before on a smaller scale, Be Chuille used my body – my human, incarnated body – as an anchor in time and space, to help Her move more easily to where work needed to be done. And then move She did: bindings and banework turned to vines in Her hand and then withered, died, and became the damp detritus of the forest floor. This fed the land spirits, who rose to Her call and ate away larger vines wrapped around buildings, and I came to understand how it had been cast. The casters knew where the targets would be (the Supreme Court, the Capitol Building) and cast it there to wait to ensnare the targets when they came by. But I watched Be Chuille remove vines from children, spouses, family members, and supporters as well as representatives – the traps had been set wide and imprecise. (I wondered, then, if that was a side effect of people casting magic with prayer and intent but without the full knowledge of what they are doing.) There were so many baneful ropes, though, and Be Chuille was more focused on removing them from those who had not been directly targeted.
Dinand arrived, then, speaking to the spirit I know as the Lady of the Potomac River, a land spirit I consider to be a local goddess. They discussed the need for a storm, for precipitation to help wash the leftover energy away, and to dissolve any that remained after being removed. When I was back to myself later, I shared that with a fellow practitioner who has a close relationship with Gwyn Ap Nudd and His Wild Hunt, especially as they relate to storms, and they agreed to talk to Him. I was told that Gwyn agreed there was a need for a cleansing storm, and He reiterated a need for human practitioners to do work alongside His own, to tip the balance.
The StarFlower Queen collected me again then, and she began working more deeply on RBG, Sotomayor, Deb Haaland, Sharice Davids, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Kyrsten Sinema, and perhaps others. I assisted as she disentangled banework from blessing, and drew the banework out, allowing the blessings to move closer to their skin. She snipped the fine threads of banework – my brain supplied the visualization of a scissors – working methodically until she had removed as much as she could easily find. I got the sense that time was distorted – as long as human practitioners do their work in the next few days, we will all be working side-by-side, at the same “time” and in the same “place”. As she worked she began to shine more and more brightly, until she finished and then blossomed into the star that is the reason for the use-name I know her by. What stars do is their own business, but it seemed she was still working on cleansing, just on a grander scale. Dispelling the Glamours Gwendolyn Reece discusses, perhaps. Things distorted beyond my ability to easily recount what I witnessed before she returned to her more normal size and shape.
After that I was handed over to Na Morrigna, as has lately been my position, and They transformed me into one corvid in a flock, swirling in the air, towards I knew not what, at first. When we arrived, however, it became more clear. I saw something that had a humanoid shape and glowed uncannily, and yet seemed not to be a natural being – it felt more like clockwork, like an android, like a computer program. I can only imagine it to have been something like an egregore, yet those are somewhat outside my realm of expertise. Whatever it was, however, it is no more. Na Morrigna gave a battle cry, and we all descended upon it. Corvids, carrion birds, and birds of prey clawed and pecked, while wolves and other four-legged creatures tore with claws and teeth, and the thing was destroyed. Many of the spirit-creatures then ate of the flesh of the thing, which fell into the shape of a horse once mortally wounded. Once they had their fill, the remaining flesh melted into slimy water, now fertility for the soil. I returned to the Waystation, and then I returned to myself, on my couch, my head reeling.
Food became necessary, but was not nearly enough to ground me. My toddler awoke and that helped to focus me some, and when my husband returned home, he assisted more, but I still felt the pull of unfinished business… until I sat down, riffled my cards, and asked the Morrigna if I had done enough, if I really needed to do more.
And the answer to that, of course, is at the top of this post.
Consider this your call to action. Do what you can, be it curse-breaking, healing, protection, storm-calling, or simply lighting a candle and praying for divine assistance. If you have a favorite deity of justice or healing, go to them. If not, ask assistance of the one in your favorite pantheon, or turn to someone I mentioned above. Do what you can, and do it now.